The Lockheed Constellation made seven stops when Qantas introduced its version of the Kangaroo Route to London in 1947. Two of those stops were on the subcontinent, passing through Karachi in Pakistan and Calcutta (Kolkata) in India.
Qantas airlines
Direct flights between the two cricket-loving countries have occasionally been hard to come by despite the sizeable Indian diaspora in Australia. However, it now appears that Qantas has recovered its hunger for these trips.
Qantas stated this morning that it was increasing its codeshare arrangements with IndiGo, the biggest airline in India. In August of last year, Qantas passengers flying to Bengaluru and Delhi could seamlessly connect to other well-liked spots, including large cities like Mumbai and Chennai or iconic locations like Pune and Goa.
Eight more cities are now accessible to Qantas passengers under the second phase of the deal. This means that Qantas passengers can connect to 21 Indian cities from Bengaluru and Delhi. Customers of Qantas have access to the domestic IndiGo network more freely, and more than 250 new flights are now bookable.
Qantas and IndiGo
It can often be challenging to change from an international to a domestic flight, but Qantas and IndiGo have planned for that and made it straightforward. Customers of Qantas flying on IndiGo can bring the same amount of luggage as they did on their flight from Australia and enjoy complimentary food and beverages while on the flight.
On connecting IndiGo flights operated with a QF code, Qantas Frequent Flyers can accrue and use points. Additionally, IndiGo will take into account any applicable tier-based perks, such as priority check-in and priority baggage, that are provided to Qantas Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Platinum One frequent passengers.
According to Qantas Chief Customer Officer Markus Svensson, passengers have shown the new routes to India to be highly popular. The codeshare agreement with IndiGo, Svensson continued, had enhanced the travel experience for Qantas customers between Australia and India, and the new destinations will provide them with even more choices.
“The additional codeshare flights will provide our passengers more options across India from our gateways in Delhi and Bengaluru, and their bags will be checked all the way to their final location.
“Our frequent flyers in particular benefit from booking these flights, with more opportunities to earn points and status credits.”
Qantas operates eight return flights weekly to get passengers from Australia to India and connected to IndiGo flights. From Melbourne International (MEL), it is flying four return flights weekly to Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL), and from Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD) has four returns weekly to Bengaluru Kempegowda International (BLR).
On Wednesday, flight QF67, which operates the Sydney-Bengaluru route, took off from SYD at 10:06 and arrived in BLR at 15:39, covering a distance of 11,033 miles. The 12-year-old Airbus A330-202, bearing the registrations VH-EBO and MSN 1169, took off from Bengaluru at 18:01 and touched down in Sydney at 10:22 the following day, according to Flightradar24.com.
The new IndiGo codeshare destinations declared by Qantas today are:
- ThiruvananthapuramVisakhapatnam
- Guwahati
- Indore
- Chandigarh
- Mangalore
- Jaipur
- Nagpur
The destinations that were already in place are:
- Ahmedabad
- Amritsar
- Bengaluru
- Delhi
- Goa
- Mumbai
- Kochi
- Kolkata
- Hyderabad
- Lucknow
- Patna
- Pune
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